Bento4Japan Giveaway - Bento starter set and adorable handmade bag!

20 Apr 2011 by maki

The Bento4Japan fundraiser organized by my fellow bento bloggers has already raised thousands of dollars to aid Japan’s disaster relief - and it’s still running! And, here’s a chance for you to get one of the prizes that was offered!

I won this bento starter set donated by Angeleyes of BentoFun. Here’s what’s in the set:

1 x 480ml Lube Sheep Bento Box (Pink)

1 x Pan Pita (Pocket Sandwich) Maker

1 x Grass silicon baran

1 x 3pcs pack silicon food cups

1 x Cute picks pack

…and last but not least, an adorable handmade bento bag sporting smiling onigiri and even an octopus sausage!

I bid on the auction because I fell in love with the bag….but since it is such a great starter set, Since it’s really a great starter kit, I’ve decided to offer it here as a giveaway. The winner will not have to pay for anything (I’ll cover the postage to anywhere worldwide, and the winning bid price of the auction of course, which will be donated to GlobalGiving to aid Japan’s disaster relief efforts.)

I do ask that you consider donating something more towards Japan’s disaster relief efforts. You may not be able to afford bidding on Bento4Japan auction item, but maybe you can spare a few dollars or Euros (insert your local currency here)! I can’t track donations officially of course, but if you do decide to enter this drawing, just let me know if you donated to the Red Cross or another organization, dropped some change into a donation box, and so on. (And of course, no one would lie about something like that…right? ^_^;) I’ll keep an unofficially tally of what’s been donated. If you’re not sure how to donate, check out the long list I put together here.

How to enter the drawing

To enter, you must leave a comment on this page. (If you’re reading this by email, please click on the title of this article to go to the JustBento web page. I will not accept emailed entries, sorry!) Just let me know where in the world you are (so I can pre-calculate the shipping costs), and if you donated something (how much and to who).

Your comment/entry must be posted by 23:59:59 CET (Central European Time) of Friday, April 22, 2011. The winner will be contacted by email to arrange shipping etc.

Good luck! ^_^

Update: The giveaway is now closed. The winner will be announced shortly!

hello!
I'm in aki-shi, kochi-ken Japan on the island of shikoku! I've donated around 10,000 yen thus far to the relief fund going to various events, charity shows, nado in the Kochi-area. In fact, I am playing with my band in a show this Saturday and participating in a live painting (for auction) for a friend whose sake company is putting on a charity/live show/auction event! Very excited. :)

This starter set is both awfully cute and quite complete. Are you sure you don't want to keep it? That bag, oh that bag! The onigiris on it made me smile!
I have donated €200 to the Red Cross so far, and I hope I can give more soon...

I donated £10 through Red Cross. I'm almost out of rice, and I'll probably head to Japan Centre within the next month to do some more donating. I prefer to do so in person instead of via Internet, but there aren't any drop-offs around here.

This set is so cute ^_^
I'm in Tokyo right now. I gave 80 euros to the French Red Cross and 50$ to Architecture for Humanity. (That's for your donation tracking ;-)). I would have loved to bid on one of your books for bento4japan, but I kind of missed out on it (so I'll have to buy it the ordinary way, duh ^^).

I donated $50 to ShelterBox and in a few months I plan to donate more to another cause. I'm not sure where my money will make the most impact and as I'm unemployed I wish I could afford more so saving what I can here and there is the best I can do.

Ciao!! I'm Chiara from Italy. I made even more than just donating, I organized a fund raising dinner with a local sushi restaurant and the whole net revenue + chef and waiters wages were donated to Red Cross pro Japan. I was cooking too. I used some of your recipes as we served bento! :D
you can see something on those blog entries (in italian, I translated them with google)http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=it&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.foo...

I am writing you from Berlin-Germany, where I was born, growing up and living - but originally my parents come from Greece ;)
Since 11 years now I am practicing Aikido on an almost daily basis after my actual job and run a small dojo together with my husband.

We know some Japanese people and are very sad about the tragedy that happened :(

By a suggestion of Minegishi sensei at the internet we have placed a donation box at the dojo. The most needed thing for the people in Japan is the monetary donation. So we asked our few students to join us for fundraising activities on the International level among the Aikido friends and asked Aikido friends all over the world to please make a donation box for their dojo. Till April we collected 180 Euro. That amount we gave S.Takeda sensei (who we have had invited to Berlin at that time) to take it to Japan and add it to the donation box of their "Aikido Kenkyu-Kai Intenational Higashi Totsuka Honbu Dojo".

And I also decided finally to change our supplier of electric energy to one of renewable energy sources (https://www.naturstrom.de - that one also did a donation for Japan) and also to pay a bit more their for supporting the building of more renewable energy sources...I think that's a good way for the future of our earth and our existence.

In the Bento-community I am quiet new - I got the hint by a friend of mine and found your book very helpful. What I like a lot is that you use ingredients that could be found in Europe too and that you also show how to pack a bento with not only japanese food recipes/ideas. Thank you a lot :)

Of course I like your starter bento set... ;)
But actually - some time ago now - I wanted to say hallo to you (as a new follower of your blog :) ) and introduce myself. So as I saw your call here, I thought that could be a good possibility ;)

I live in Okinawa and have donated through the Salvation Army and Nazarene Compassionate Ministries. Thanks so much for all your efforts to help the relief work! And thanks ALWAYS for giving resources and ideas for Japanese cooking. :)

So grieved by the suffering in Japan. We donated $50 on 3/25 to Samaritan's Purse for help -- so little compared to the need. Our state in the USA was just hit by tornadoes. Thank you for your articles, on the events in Japan, and on the food and customs.

Hi, I'm an Indian and live in Mumbai, India. We all have been horrified by the extent of devastation caused in Japan and I have been personally very impressed by the resilience, calm and discipline that has been shown by the Japanese people and govt to re-build in the face of such calamity. I have donated Rs. 2000/- to our local Red Cross, and prayed everyday for the Japanese children and their mothers.

Bento is mirrored in the very old Indian practice of tiffins. From whenever i can remember I have been familiar with this concept, my mother gave me a tiffin box everyday to school, college and even wen i began working, I have continued likewise with my children. Our tiffin boxes are nowhere as beautiful and cute as Japanese ones and are functional stainless steel or recently plastic.

However, I love your posts and find them extremely creative and practical at the same time. Thanks for all your posts and also for doing so much on the Internet forum for Japan.

I donated £10 through the British Red Cross website, as well as £5 through my language school's donation box (it's all I could afford for now). This looks like a wonderful idea to gain some extra support for Japan! :)

Lovely idea!
I am a South African living in Nagoya for 2 years.
I have so totally fallen in love with Japan and O Bento!
I bought your book from Marouzen in Nagoya and have had a lot of fun using the recipes.
My husband and I are attending evening Japanese classes and I am trying to make every Bento in your book on Class nights!
We donated money to our church in Nagoya (Grace City church), who have distributed the funds to various support organisations as well as a church in the Sendai area.

I live in Switzerland and I donated CHF 50 to the red cross through my work. We have colleagues in Japan and the company as a whole is helping with the tragedy there. Thanks for keeping us updated Maki :)

That is a lovely starter set!
I am currently living in Japan but I haven't really started making o-bento yet, mostly because I can't find the time, but that's something I would like to change and I look to your blog for inspiration.
I have donated 20 euros to the Red Cross and try to give a little something everytime I see a collection box.

I live in Israel and I've donated to IsraAID who are currently in Japan (donated via IsraelGives.org).
This is IsraAID's Facebook page where you can see photos of some of their activities in Japan: http://www.facebook.com/israaid?ref=ts

I'm a long-time lurker who managed to make onigiri the other day and is so thankful for that! The bento set is adorable, and I think what you've been doing (raising awareness, charity etc) is brilliant.

What an adorable set! I'm located in Milford, CT. I studied abroad in Japan while in college, and my school is hosting a fund raiser through the Japan Society. I donated $50 to them. My current company is doing donation matching through the Red Cross as well, so when I get that information I will also put something aside for that.

I'm in the Northern Virginia/DC Metro area. I won two Bento4Japan auctions (signed copy of Yum-Yum Bento Box and a cute/fun peanut shaped bento box) for roughly $50 total. I love what all of you are doing for Japan. They need all the help we can give and our prayers. =)

I am a student in NJ, US.
Our class in school has been baking almost everyday and doing bake sales all month to raise funds for Japan.
I haven't personally donated any money but I help bake and we've been selling pretty well so far.
I don't know exactly how much money we've raised though.

I give $100.00 as a biweekly payroll deduction through my company who has a 100% match until the end of May. We are all trying to do our part to help Japan through this tragedy. I live in Maryland, USA.

Im new to JustBento, and I love the set! Its cute! Id like to be in the drawing. I havent donated anything to this site, because Im rather poor. But I have donated to the Japanese Relief (13 dollars). :) Still a kid living at home, but I do my best! :)

What a lovely set! I donated $20. at the cash register at Costco and talked 2 friends who were with me to do the same thing. I am planning to make some elastic bento bands and furoshikis to put on the Bento4Japan ebay sales site too. Glad it's still operating because I haven't finished them yet.

I'm in Richmond, BC, Canada (you land in Richmond if you fly to Vancouver!) and I've managed to donate $40 to the Red Cross (not much, but quite a bit given my budget). My temple held a multi-faith vigil for the survivers in Japan which I attended. It was amazing, with many different faith groups in the area each leading an hour long session. We also folded many, many paper cranes.